Skip to main content

tv   The Presidency Calvin Coolidge Descendant  CSPAN  November 22, 2021 12:02am-12:16am EST

12:02 am
anytime and watching american history tv. >> what is your relationship to coolidge predict. >> my relationship with calvin coolidge, i am the great-granddaughter and my mother was one of two girls who
12:03 am
were the grandchildren of the coolidge predict. >> and where do you live braided. >> in new hampshire pretty it is just a little bit over an hour so is nice distance. >> we are talking at the white house associations events add your first visit and first time i've talked to you but how associated are you with the presence and how much work you do that area. >> i've been going to missouri for a few years and to me it was some of the other presidential descendents who gathered to the festival and usually presidential descendents and is a lot of fun, we talk about how we are descendents from the presence and what it's like to be a deep son and a descendent and how he sort of carry on the legacy pretty that's about all
12:04 am
intensive far. and it is like having a double identity, i'm a stay-at-home mom. and i do a lot of volunteer work in my everyday life, i work at my school and then, special events that come up and allow me to travel and meet people which i am forever grateful for. other descendents, and other people of importance and various walks of life. usually so not so many politicians but some leaders in that kind of thing. >> so this is been an interest thriving life or did you grow into it and certain age pretty. >> i did sort of grow into a little bit as i have gotten older and my mother and aunt, they both talked prematurely,
12:05 am
they were in the late 50s was my aunt, she passed away and my mom was 61 when she passed. and of the time, i was about 30, and i decided that is time for me to take the torch and carry on the legacy because there really is no one else doing it. >> what is the legacy of calvin coolidge in the message that you want people to know about your great-grandfather. >> on people to know that he was a very decent down to earth human being. hate he was a very likable gentleman. he was able to work with ulcers of people on both sides of the aisle which was i find very refreshing. he was able to get the votes from both parties at the time. it was kind of like the boy next
12:06 am
door the people just wanted to, he was very likable. he did not seem intimidating, he did have a very dry wit, new england since of humor and he was shy, did not embrace small talk very much read but he did have an opinion about certain things. >> can you tell me the story about how the historical sites came to becoming families are involved printed. >> is created i believe in 1960 by my grandfather john coolidge but also there were some other people involved. one of the first lady and i can't recall which one. was involved in creating the foundation.
12:07 am
at first it was that calvin coolidge memorial foundation and only the past couple of years, we have changed the name to the calvin coolidge presidential foundation. >> is an entire small village there, what is the story is trying to tell about the coolidge presidency and calvin coolidge own upbringing. >> so this story is portrayed is that the site is simple, it is portrayed as the place where he grew up and it is exactly replica of his boyhood home. it is been kept that way purposely because we feel it's very important for people to understand that anyone can come from humble beginnings whether be a farmer or very simple
12:08 am
beginnings and then you never know, he never expected to grow up to be president so this is a very simple place for you can see that anyone can get started anywhere. it is very modest, he was not a pretentious man predict. >> your great-grandfather's biography said he often demonstrates how hard life was for the farmers of that era and acclimate and can you talk a little bit about that. >> it was and he did a lot of working with the horses and with a capitol, mostly dairy cattle. we also did a loss of maple tapping. and he could get more maple out of the tree than anybody in the area. as a really good story but he
12:09 am
had to bring in the one for a fire every day in a hand to make sure that the wood box was filled and ready to go. he had these farm chores and he was expected to deal pretty. >> is also the place where he took the oval office would join to tell a story. >> , not to because as you make, they received word on that president harding had passed away in california and in san francisco. telegraph us into bridgewater, vermont rated there was a deliver bridgewater went up to plymouth and there is not on the door the coolidge's were visiting and mr. coolidge, vice president coolidge his father,
12:10 am
and so early in the morning in 1923, they had a knock on the door and the father answered the door and said what is going on and he was informed that harding had passed away. so his father would happen will calvin and shared the news with him and then they went downstairs and his father administered the oath to him and he was the notary of republic so he felt that under the circumstances this was something that he could just sort of take care of so that her country would not be without a president. so that happened and they went back to bed. it was very modest ceremony,
12:11 am
just a few reporters a stenographer. missus coolidge. so grace coolidge, she was the opposite in character. she was fun-loving and got the stories from my mother in a grace and was a really fun grandmother hard grace glazed was a teacher for deaf children in massachusetts. in school for the death and for deaf and she was also the only first lady to attend a four-year college and that was university of vermont.
12:12 am
>> she had a great love of animals pretty. >> and many animals throughout the years most famed and normal was a raccoon and they had a variety of dogs and cats in the white house. >> you read father john had a brother who died the white house so it's close by telling the story because it was a real tragedy, i believe during a reelection campaign rated. >> yes, the brothers were 19 years apart excuse me 19 months apart and they are playing tennis, has found. calvin jr. developed a blister on his foot and that was treated but it became infected and the infection started to spread through his body and they had no
12:13 am
antibiotics at the time to treat that so a week after getting a blister, he died in a hospital of texas. he was 16 years old. >> what you know about how that impacted the presidential family. >> i believe that i put a lot of pressure on john. he was then seen as the only remaining child and i think a lot of stress and pressure was put on him to be a model. i do know that it was a realize the president and that he blamed himself a lot because if he had not maybe been in that position, maybe his son would be alive.
12:14 am
grace was a real driving in terms of saving the family and helping them to move on. she wrote a poem about calvin's death. it was called the open-door. so she really helped them move on. >> there is really a lot of number of families who lost children in those days i always wonder how you can do with that tragedy when their living under the spotlight of the white house predict thank you for sharing your family stories and cspan.o.
12:15 am
>> good afternoon, i am carol the moderator of this session on david his book, the murderous to of 1898 in the rise of white supremacy. it's an honor to have this book here at the southern festival and because david

95 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on